Wednesday, 29 February 2012

2012 Begins

Sooooo pokerwise the year has started off pretty well. I've been putting in a lot of volume (for me - already played nearly half of what I did last year) which I'm pleased about and results have been ok. The main bink of the year so far was a 2nd in the supersonic for $25k, made sweeter by the fact at the time hyperturbos weren't on the stake :D So that's taken some pressure off and I can just concentrate on clearing makeup, which stands at about $35k, mainly thanks to some poor game selection late last year. Being good this year though and basically being a midstakes grinder during the week, and with my new setup (swishy new computer, big new screen, fancy ergonomic herman miller office chair) I can play a lot more, and a lot more comfortably.

Played a few live events too - accidentally won a seat for EPT Deauville (was meant to be just grinding the subsats...) which turned out to be a complete disaster. Headed down to bristol for a few days before the journey, my dad offers to give me a lift to the station. I do one last check: money, clothes, keys, phone...passport. Passport. Passport? Oh goooood, I've left it in leeds. Queue cheesies dashing around like a madman checking train times to leeds and back down to london and booking new eurostar tickets whilst my dad is tapping his foot waiting to take me to the station. Manage to get it all booked (not before spending a ton of money on new tickets sigh) and drop the bombshell to my dad in the car - we have a good laugh at another travel cockup, which is sadly a fairly frequent habit of mine. Arrived in Paris at midnight, had to fork out for the 2-hour taxi to Deauville so I could be there in time for the 12pm start the next day. Deauville itself... limped along halfway into day 2 of the main, got food poisoning, went home. woo.

Dan, Luke, Dave and I also went to UKIPT Galway which was great fun - the UK poker scene out in force, hazy memories of singing 'I'd rather be a scandi than a nit' and lots of silly card games with many of my poker heroes. UKIPT Nottingham and the Irish open are on the cards for April, but other than that it's a pretty clear diary until the series in June.

Outside of poker its been tough with a death in the family and another relative very ill, so lots of grief and stress. Still trying to get a healthy routine established here in Leeds, not particularly successfully. The winter hasn't hit me too hard this year which is positive, although definitely a zombie a good deal of the time - super thankful I have a way of earning that is as flexible as its possible to be, and can work it around how I'm feeling. Because that's just the way isn't it? You're driving along sunny street, oblivious and cheery, and then - suddenly -